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Our Haydn Piano Concerto in D Major Hob XVIII:11 by Juan Rezzuto in Sintra, Portugal

Juan José Rezzuto

May 26, 2019
2 min

Our Haydn Piano Concerto in D Major Hob XVIII:11 by Juan Rezzuto in Sintra, Portugal

It was with a considerable deal of joy that I played last May 10th 2019 at the Seteais Palace in Sintra, Lisbon - Portugal. The "Palacio" is set up within the most fantastic frame. Amongst scenic mountains, dressed with beautiful forests and enhanced by the most brilliant views of the Sintra valley, the palace offered a magical and suitable platform for this "settecentesco" Piano Concerto by Joseph Haydn. The room was just perfect and most probably "historically correct" too.

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Questions we received from students or parents about piano tuition - Part III

Juan José Rezzuto

May 22, 2019
3 min

Questions we received from students or parents about piano tuition - Part III

In this chapter, we aim to answer the following common question: What shall we do after my Grading exam? As piano teachers, how many times did we get that questions from students or parents after a grading exam? I have different ways to approach that question. It really depends on the feedback that the student in question received during his last exam and the goal is to take three or four months working on his weaknesses. Most of the times, the problems are in the sight readi

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Questions we received from students or parents about piano tuition - Part II

Juan José Rezzuto

May 4, 2019
3 min

Questions we received from students or parents about piano tuition - Part II

I decided to continue with this series about interesting and common questions I receive from parents and students. It would be interesting to hear comments from my piano teachers’ friends. One very common question from my students is regarding fingering: “Why do I need to follow certain fingering when I can play the same passage with a different one or the one that comes in the very moment?” The answer is yes, you have to follow a certain fingering and especially at the begin

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ABRSM Grade 1 and Pre-grade syllabus

Juan José Rezzuto

Apr 25, 2019
2 min

ABRSM Grade 1 and Pre-grade syllabus

Can we start teaching your child from Grade 1 straight away? It all depends on the current level of your child. If your child has already taken piano and/or music lessons in general, then we might be able to do so. How do we make the decision to starting the Grade 1 training? We assess some specific contents: music theory level, piano technique level and or dexterity. Our piano playing improves when we learn how to perform certain tasks better. In order to start learning G

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Muzio Clementi

Juan José Rezzuto

Apr 22, 2019
3 min

Muzio Clementi

Muzio Clementi, Italian pianist and composer who based most of his life in London. The relationship between London, as one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, and the artistic and musical life is really strengthening and productive. Along the centuries several great artists and musicians, in particular, has been developing their own careers as composers, performers, publishers, conductors or teachers in London. One of the few personalities that come together all the

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Olga Jackowska - Kora, the Polish voice

Juan José Rezzuto

Mar 27, 2019
2 min

Olga Jackowska - Kora, the Polish voice

Kora Jackowska Kora Jackowska 2018 July 2018, Polish rock scene and showbusiness was shocked by the news that one of the biggest names of Polish rock and a very inspiring artist, Kora, died after five years of fighting with cancer. She was a star. Born in 1951 in Cracow as Olga Jackowska, she was the youngest of all children in her poor family and that is why she was sent to an orphanage. Being in high school, she decided to join the hippie movement which strongly supported a

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Tonal Families: Introduction to Chord Substitution - Function 1

Mar 17, 2019
2 min

Tonal Families: Introduction to Chord Substitution - Function 1

Example C Major scale in piano chords Within a scale, we have seven diatonic chords. With the term diatonic I mean chords that belong to a specific scale. By looking at the triads we build on top of every note (or degree when referring to a harmonic function) it is possible to group the chords into families – or harmonic functions, if you prefer – that share similar harmonic properties. As each note has a specific function within a scale, the chord above it does as well. This

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A first approach to Jazz piano language

Juan José Rezzuto

Mar 10, 2019
3 min

A first approach to Jazz piano language

As a classically-trained pianist, my first approach to jazz made me realize how many differences exists within the instrumental techniques according to the genre you want to play. Studying jazz was a distant experience in contrast with anything learned so far. It’s a musical world with an enormous variety: it covers from the Dixieland to Bebop, going through Ragtime and Fusion. Jazz identity is not easy to delimit, being this term associated more with a musical language. All

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Classical Music in Russia

Juan José Rezzuto

Mar 5, 2019
2 min

Classical Music in Russia

Russian classical music One of the fastest developing places of Western music was in Russia during the 19th Century. Previously it wasn’t allowed due to the Orthodox Church dissuading Secular music. By the time Peter I had reigned, Western composers and musicians had been frequently invited to the new westernised city of Saint Petersburg to spread the influence of music- most popularly Italian Opera across the aristocracy at the time. The problem with this was although they w

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The Renaissance, Music at the service of the Word

Avelino Vazquez

Feb 16, 2019
2 min

The Renaissance, Music at the service of the Word

The fall of Constantinople in 1453 was a blow to Western civilization, its stability was now threatened by the unstoppable thrust of the Turkish Empire, capable of even besieging Vienna itself on two occasions and several decades later. As is known, the Ottomans would seize a considerable part of Eastern Europe, the entire continent trembled. Although, fortunately, not all were misfortunes. The rediscovery of texts of classical antiquity that had been brewing slowly since the

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Musical expectations and Cultural attributes in Music

Feb 6, 2019
3 min

Musical expectations and Cultural attributes in Music

What is it determines what we like? Which template of musical determines our musical taste? This can be related to musical expectations. This is basically how do we perceive any given musical template, these expectations are what we believe or think the way music has to go. One root of this situation can be attributed to how we were musically nurtured since we are born. By musical nurture, I simply mean in what culture did we grow up and what kind of music did we listen by ou

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Developments in Music

Juan José Rezzuto

Feb 3, 2019
2 min

Developments in Music

Over the past weeks I have been rehearsing some new (or very old) music with colleagues. Most recently a sonata by Sammartini written in the 17th century. Avelino who is a real expert experienced with early music had found it and we started to work on it for an upcoming concert. The music is very nice with harmonies I only thought existed in the Romantic period and after but there was a real expressive use of chords and suspensions with 7ths, 9ths. The kind of chords you woul

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The Music of the Future, by Robert Barry (Book Review)

Juan José Rezzuto

Jan 26, 2019
3 min

The Music of the Future, by Robert Barry (Book Review)

The Music of the Future is a book in three acts, structured as a sort of tabloid opera. The book challenges the basic narrative of modernity from the conservatism of the classical age to “the elitism of the techno purist”. By examining an unusual collection of efforts to contemporize music alongside current concerns of music’s progress, Robert Barry collates what he calls “a history of failures, mapping 200 years of attempts… to imagine a future of music”. It’s a fun read, an

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Tips for Practising and Sight Reading

Juan José Rezzuto

Jan 6, 2019
3 min

Tips for Practising and Sight Reading

Reading a piano sheet music On a previous article, I briefed about the main differences between the two ways of playing music whether known or completely unfamiliar. I have had many students whether trying out new music or preparing for exams completely stuck on sight reading so we went through many practice runs until it became routine. We can get completely thrown by the fact we have very limited time to sight read (mainly half a minute) as opposed to learning a new piece o

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Pablo de Sarasate

Juan José Rezzuto

Dec 27, 2018
2 min

Pablo de Sarasate

One particular composer for the violin I recommend to listen to is violin composer Pablo de Sarasate. Born in Pamplona, North Spain in the Navarra province. Sarasate brought Spanish style music to the forefront of the Classical repertoire which served as inspiration for a lot of following composers. Saint Saens Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, Bizet Carmen which filtered through to later composers including Ravel. Born in a city famous for the San

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Ignaz Moscheles

Juan José Rezzuto

Dec 10, 2018
4 min

Ignaz Moscheles

Travel means know more and better, not only what you meet for the first time in a new place, but those kinds of things and persons you leave behind. This reflexion goes with the idea of those artists in general and musicians in particular that made a long journey to thrive and meet themselves better and in too many cases their own inspiration. "Like wind in Autumn..." However, it is not unique for the artists indeed. London is a place plenty of travelers, people around the

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Does my child need to practice during the Christmas holidays?

Juan José Rezzuto

Dec 2, 2018
2 min

Does my child need to practice during the Christmas holidays?

Finally, it is Christmas time, and we are all looking forward to our holidays. I am very often asked that question: “Does my child need to practice during the holidays?” It depends on one willing to spend some time at the piano or doing some music theory books. A couple of weeks away from the instrument won`t harm anyone and it might be beneficial to increase one`s motivation to come back to the daily practice routine during term time. Many people go to places where a piano i

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How to Read Piano Music

Juan José Rezzuto

Nov 24, 2018
3 min

How to Read Piano Music

For the beginner in piano study, there is a multitude to learn- notes, rhythms, keys, scales, pedal technique and so so much more… The beginner in piano studies is like a caterpillar in the tropical rainforest… a tiny organism attempting to survive, thrive and flourish in an environment inundated with enormity, intricacy and exotic colours woven into the fabric of the dense and lush forest that can only be described as an out of this world paradigm… …That paradigm is MUSIC… H

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Baroque Music: Aristotelism and the Art of the Unfinished

Avelino Vazquez

Nov 18, 2018
2 min

Baroque Music: Aristotelism and the Art of the Unfinished

The European sixteenth century, although brilliant, was also very convulsive. The looting of Rome, the religious wars derived from the reform and the counter-reformation, the re-feudalization of society promoted by the aristocratic urban elites ... several factors started with the destruction of the Renaissance optimism and his concept of human dignity, a sacred dignity according to his status as a creature made in the image and likeness of the creator. We went from a spiritu

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Physiotherapy, Ergonomics and Alexander Method: Helping the musicians to correct the posture.

Juan José Rezzuto

Nov 6, 2018
9 min

Physiotherapy, Ergonomics and Alexander Method: Helping the musicians to correct the posture.

Whether we are musicians or not, we all reach a certain age in which the monotony of our lives hurts us in our health and not only with illnesses but with physical discomforts that prevent us from developing an activity with a good rhythm. Back pain, cervical, limbs ... all this is due to a continuous overload, which hurts us in our daily lives. Well, I choose this theme to raise awareness of how we can prevent many of these pains, I will be focused on the musicians because t

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